Roll No.

Major themes in Far from the Madding Crowd

Seminar Submitted to
the Department of English,
School of Languages, Gujarat University.

For M. A. Sem-2
Course – No. 412

By
Aastha Sahai
M. A. Sem-2

Guided by
Dr. Dushyant Nimavat
Professor
Department of English,
University School of Languages,
Gujarat University.

February 2018

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 Introduction

It is a well-known fact that love plays a major role in Hardy’s novels. Bathsheba’s courtship, her
suitors and her developments can be seen throughout the novel. Despite having been written a
few decades after the romantic period, several elements of Romanticism appear in Hardy’s
novel Far from the Madding Crowd. While playing an important role in the novel and
characterizing many relationships, romantic love is always depicted in a negative light. Two
different characters of the novel, who both suffer because of their romantic love towards
another person, when finally, the ending of the novel, where the two protagonists are united.
Here are the major themes in Thomas Hardy’s novel.

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Sublime in nature:

Far from the Madding Crowd was published in 1874, during the Victorian Period. Set in rural
England, it highlights the joys of rural life and the beauty in nature. The farming community is
presented in an authentic way, with the workers speaking in local dialects. The novel also
contains detailed descriptions of the different rural tasks, rituals and events that are part of the
farming calendar. In Weatherbury, the village where Bathsheba’s farm stands, time stands still.
The contrast of rural and urban worlds is also embodied in the characters of Gabriel and Troy.
Gabriel is shown as superior to the urbanized Troy. Gabriel represents rural life and is portrayed
in a more positive light. He has a strong connection to nature, as he understands natural
phenomena and can read nature. Not only is he able to tell the time by looking at the sun and
stars and can tell if his sheep are well by listening to the ringing of their bells, he can also
recognize a coming storm.

Marriage:

No matter what page you turn to in Far from the Madding Crowd, it seems like marriage is
always on one of the main characters' minds. First Gabriel wants to marry Bathsheba, then
Boldwood does, then Sergeant Troy does, and then Boldwood does again. Fanny Robin wants
Troy to make good on his promise to marry her, and then Bathsheba actually does marry Troy.
And then she marries Gabriel. It's a freaking marriage three-ring circus. After all, marriage in Far
from the Madding Crowd is both a question of love and a question of finance. And for farmers
in 19th century England—or 21st century anywhere, for that matter—what else is there?

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Religion:

Far from the Madding Crowd is set in Victorian England, which means that you're going to get a
double dose of religion. More specifically, this novel observes the way in which religion shapes
people's moral codes. Whenever someone needs to make sense of a difficult situation, they
often do so by referring to a passage in the Bible that tells of a similar situation. One of the
funny things you'll find throughout this book, though, is that characters who can't read well are
constantly misquoting the Bible, meaning that they take comfort from expressions that aren't in
the Bible to begin with. But that doesn't change the fact that these people still find comfort in
thinking that they're quoting the Bible.

Love:

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage. Or, for poor
Fanny Robin: first comes love, then comes a baby, and then comes death in the poor house.
And for several characters in Far from the Madding Crowd, love and marriage don't have
anything at all to do with one another. Boldwood, for example, doesn't care at all whether
Bathsheba loves him, so long as she'll agree to be his wife. Gabriel, on the other hand, wants
what is best for Bathsheba no matter what happens to him in the process. It's pretty easy to say
that Gabriel's brand of love is a lot nicer than Boldwood's cold, practical desire to possess the
woman he wants and it's certainly nicer than Troy's amoral psychopath approach to love.

Class:

Class is a really big deal in Far from the Madding Crowd. Certain characters move from one class
to another as the story unfolds: Gabriel Oak, for example, starts the book as a farmer with his
own land and sheep, but a freak accident plunges him into financial ruin and he needs to take a
job as a shepherd. This is depressing to him, both because being broke sucks and because
Bathsheba didn't want to marry him when he was just a farmer. As the novel progresses, you

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find out more and more how people's opinions and options tend to be determined by what
place they occupy on the social ladder. The rich get to have options and opinions and the poor
don't

Pride:

You can't underestimate the role of pride in Far from the Madding Crowd, or in any Victorian
novel, for that matter. Characters in Hardy novels are constantly looking for ways to satisfy
their pride without appearing proud at all. At times, though, it makes you want to see someone
beaten down by the world until they learn to be humble. And luckily for you, that's something
that Hardy loves to provide for his readers. Hardy's characters' favorite meal is humble pie.

Gender:

What do you get when a single woman living in the 19th century decides that she's going to
manage her uncle's farm all by herself? You get some workmen and a whole lot of conversation
about gender, that's what. At first, Bathsheba doesn't seem to sweat it. But unfortunately, her
independence as a woman (a good thing) seems to be tied to her vanity (a bad thing). Or in
other words, it's really tough for Thomas Hardy to teach Bathsheba a lesson about vanity
without also teaching her not to stand up for herself as a woman. And that can lead to some
pretty interesting discussions on the (outdated) idea of gender in Far from the Madding Crowd.

Drugs and alcohol:

If you just skim Far from the Madding Crowd, you can easily miss how important a role alcohol
plays in its action. We can tell that Sergeant Troy is a brute, for example, by the way that he can
drink any other man under the table. By contrast, we know that Gabriel Oak is a good, Christian
man by the way he tends to stay away from alcohol. There are some poor workmen like Joseph
Poorgrass who just can't control themselves when it comes to drink, and for Hardy, this seems

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to happen out of a combination of addiction and personal weakness. On top of that, though,
the plot of this book also calls for moments when people need to be a little more clumsy and
dumb than usual, and alcohol is a really good way for a writer to make clumsy and dumb
happen.

Work Cited

● All the artwork by Ivan Canu, Illustrator